The Diary of a Young Girl

The Diary of a Young Girl Plot Summary

Introduction

In the cramped confines of a secret annex in Amsterdam, a teenage girl's pen moved across the pages of a checkered diary, capturing not just the daily struggles of life in hiding, but the universal journey of adolescence, intellectual awakening, and the search for identity. Anne Frank, born into a world that would soon be consumed by hatred, transformed her forced isolation into a canvas for self-discovery and literary expression. Through her diary, this ordinary girl with extraordinary insight created one of history's most powerful testimonies to the human spirit's resilience in the face of unimaginable persecution. Anne's story transcends the specific horrors of the Holocaust to speak to fundamental aspects of the human condition: the struggle to maintain dignity and hope in desperate circumstances, the complexity of family relationships under pressure, and the power of writing as both refuge and resistance. Her voice—honest, witty, introspective, and wise beyond her years—continues to resonate across generations, not merely as a witness to historical atrocity, but as a guide to finding meaning and beauty even in the darkest of times. Through her journey, we discover how the most confined physical existence can still contain a boundless inner life, and how words written in secret can ultimately change the world.

Chapter 1: Early Life and the Shadow of Nazism

Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Otto and Edith Frank, joining her three-year-old sister Margot in a loving, middle-class Jewish family. Her early childhood coincided with the economic depression gripping Germany, but the Frank household remained relatively comfortable due to Otto's business acumen. Anne was known from the beginning for her lively personality—talkative, curious, and sometimes mischievous. Family photographs show a smiling, confident little girl, seemingly untouched by the gathering political storm that would soon engulf Europe. The family's sense of security shattered when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Otto Frank, a perceptive businessman and World War I veteran, recognized the escalating danger for Jews in Germany earlier than many. When Jewish businesses were boycotted and anti-Semitic legislation began to take effect, he made the difficult decision to relocate his family to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Otto established a new business selling pectin and spices, while Edith created a home where the girls could resume a normal childhood. Anne, not yet five years old, adapted quickly to her new surroundings, learning Dutch and making friends at her Montessori school. For several years, Amsterdam provided a safe haven for the Frank family. Anne thrived in school, where teachers noted her intelligence and expressive nature. She developed a passion for reading and writing, collecting pictures of movie stars, and playing with friends in the neighborhood. Though displaced from their homeland, the Franks built a comfortable life, celebrating holidays, taking summer vacations, and maintaining connections with extended family. Anne grew particularly close to her father, whom she called "Pim," finding in him a patient listener and gentle guide through childhood's challenges. This period of relative normalcy ended abruptly in May 1940 when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands. The occupation brought immediate changes to daily life, followed by increasingly restrictive anti-Jewish measures. Jews were required to register with authorities, surrender bicycles and radios, wear yellow stars on their clothing, observe curfews, and eventually attend segregated schools. Anne was forced to leave her beloved Montessori school for the Jewish Lyceum. Her world began to contract as public spaces—parks, theaters, swimming pools—became forbidden territory for Jews. Despite these mounting restrictions, Anne maintained her spirited nature. Her childhood friend Hanneli Goslar later recalled that Anne remained "a little girl full of life" who "liked to be the center of attention." Yet her diary, which she received as a gift for her thirteenth birthday on June 12, 1942, reveals her growing awareness of the precarious situation. In early entries, she documented the increasing hardships faced by Amsterdam's Jews, including the first deportations to labor camps. When her sister Margot received a call-up notice from the SS in July 1942, the family immediately implemented their contingency plan. On July 6, they disappeared into hiding in a secret annex above Otto's business premises, bringing Anne's relatively carefree childhood to an abrupt end. The transition from freedom to confinement was jarring for the thirteen-year-old Anne. In her diary, she described the strange experience of walking through the streets wearing multiple layers of clothing (since they couldn't risk being seen with suitcases), saying goodbye to her cat Moortje, and entering the hidden rooms that would become her world for the next two years. Even as external circumstances grew increasingly dire, Anne's resilient spirit and keen observational skills allowed her to create meaning from confinement. Her early diary entries reveal a teenager determined to maintain her identity and dreams despite the shadow of Nazism that had fundamentally altered the trajectory of her young life.

Chapter 2: Into Hiding: The Secret Annex

The Secret Annex, as Anne called it in her diary, was a three-story space at the back of the building where Otto Frank's business operated at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. To reach it, one had to pass through a bookcase that served as a hidden door—a feature that would later become emblematic of the Frank family's story. The space, approximately 450 square feet in total, was divided into several small rooms across multiple levels. Though cramped and spare, it offered what the Frank family needed most: invisibility from the Nazi authorities who were systematically deporting Jews to concentration camps. The Franks did not hide alone. They were soon joined by the van Pels family—Hermann, Auguste, and their sixteen-year-old son Peter (referred to as the van Daans in Anne's diary)—and later by Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist and acquaintance of the Franks (whom Anne called Albert Dussel). Eight people in total shared this confined space, attempting to create some semblance of normal life while maintaining absolute silence during business hours when workers were present in the building below. The logistics of daily existence were complex: bathroom visits were strictly scheduled, windows were blacked out, and even coughing or flushing the toilet during the day could pose a deadly risk. The hidden families depended entirely on four loyal helpers who risked their lives daily to bring food, supplies, news, and moral support. Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, and Bep Voskuijl became the only connection between the Secret Annex and the outside world. They used their own ration cards to provide food, brought books and magazines to relieve the monotony of confinement, and kept the inhabitants informed about the progress of the war. Anne wrote of them with immense gratitude: "They come upstairs every day and talk to the men about business and politics, to the women about food and wartime difficulties, and to the children about books and newspapers... They're our examples of goodness." Daily life in the Annex followed a rigid routine designed to minimize the risk of discovery. Weekdays were particularly regimented: rising quietly at 6:30 a.m., with no water running or toilet flushing until the warehouse workers left at 8:30. Mornings were spent in near silence, reading or studying. After the workers departed for lunch around 12:30, the hidden residents could move more freely, though still with caution. The afternoon brought more studying, household chores, and meal preparation, followed by the evening when they could relax somewhat, listening to radio broadcasts about the war or engaging in discussions and occasional arguments that Anne documented in vivid detail. The physical discomfort of their situation was considerable. In winter, the Annex was bitterly cold with limited fuel for heating. Anne described wearing all her clothes at once and still shivering. Summer brought different problems—stifling heat in the poorly ventilated rooms and the torment of fleas and other pests. Food became increasingly scarce as the war progressed. Their diet consisted largely of dried beans, potatoes, and whatever vegetables the helpers could procure. Anne wrote about their meals with a mixture of complaint and humor, noting how they saved potato peelings to make pancakes and celebrated when their helpers managed to obtain special treats like a cake for a birthday. Despite these hardships, the inhabitants of the Secret Annex created moments of normalcy and even joy. They celebrated birthdays and holidays, shared meals, and established routines that provided structure amid chaos. Anne decorated her small section of the room she shared with Fritz Pfeffer with pictures of movie stars and royalty cut from magazines. She established a rigorous study schedule for herself, working on mathematics, history, languages, and literature. Most importantly, she found solace in writing, transforming her diary from a simple record of events into a profound exploration of her thoughts, feelings, and developing identity. "Paper has more patience than people," she noted in an early entry, establishing the diary as her most trusted confidant during the long months of confinement.

Chapter 3: Daily Life in Confinement

The rhythm of life in the Secret Annex was dictated by necessity and fear. Weekdays followed a strict schedule designed to minimize the risk of detection by the warehouse workers below. From 8:30 AM until 5:30 PM, when the business was operating, the eight inhabitants moved in stockinged feet, spoke in whispers, and avoided flushing the toilet. "A wooden floor that creaks when you walk on it—imagine what a dangerous situation that can create," Anne wrote. These hours were spent in near silence, with each person occupying themselves with quiet activities—reading, studying, mending clothes, or writing. Only after the workers left could they move more freely, though still with great caution. Food dominated much of daily life and conversation in the Annex. As rationing grew stricter and food became scarcer throughout occupied Amsterdam, meals became increasingly meager. The eight residents relied entirely on what their helpers could provide using ration cards and black market purchases. Anne frequently documented their menu: breakfast typically consisted of bread and ersatz coffee, lunch might be spinach or lettuce with potatoes, and dinner was often little more than bread again. "Our evening meal consists of potatoes and imitation gravy, fortunately with spinach," she wrote in one entry. "I might have been able to tolerate the food if only there had been more of it." Special occasions were marked by small culinary treats—a bit of sausage for Christmas, or a cake for a birthday—that took on enormous significance in their deprived circumstances. Intellectual and educational pursuits provided crucial structure and purpose during confinement. Otto Frank organized a small school for the three young people, teaching them mathematics, history, and languages. Anne threw herself into her studies with characteristic intensity, creating elaborate schedules and reading lists for herself. She studied French, English, and German, worked on her mathematics, and devoured books on history, mythology, and religion. "I've made up my mind to lead a different life from other girls," she wrote, "and not to become an ordinary housewife later on." Beyond formal studies, the adults organized reading sessions where they took turns reading aloud from novels, biographies, and poetry, creating a shared cultural experience that temporarily transported them beyond their confined space. Personal hygiene and health concerns presented ongoing challenges. With limited water and no bathtub, bathing involved standing in a small washtub in the bathroom, an awkward process that Anne described with characteristic frankness. Dental care was particularly problematic, though having a dentist (Fritz Pfeffer) in hiding with them provided some advantage. As the months passed, all eight inhabitants experienced health issues related to their confinement—vitamin deficiencies, dental problems, and various infections. Anne documented her own physical development with remarkable candor, writing about her menstrual cycles, her changing body, and her growing interest in sexuality, topics that were rarely discussed so openly in the 1940s. The psychological strain of prolonged confinement manifested in various ways. Tensions flared regularly among the eight residents, with arguments about food distribution, bathroom usage, and personal habits. Anne chronicled these conflicts with keen insight, noting how confinement magnified minor irritations into major disputes. "The atmosphere is stifling, sluggish, leaden," she wrote during a particularly difficult period. Yet she also documented moments of connection and community—shared laughter over a joke, the comfort of a birthday celebration, or the collective anxiety and hope that accompanied news of the war's progress. These moments of shared humanity provided essential psychological sustenance during their long isolation. Perhaps the most poignant aspect of daily life in the Annex was the residents' connection to the natural world, limited though it was. Anne wrote movingly about watching a patch of blue sky through the attic window, observing the changing seasons through a chestnut tree visible from the Annex, and dreaming of riding a bicycle again. "As long as this exists," she wrote of the sun and clouds she could glimpse from the attic, "this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?" These small connections to nature became precious lifelines, reminding the confined teenager that beauty still existed in the world beyond their hiding place.

Chapter 4: Growing Up Behind Walls

The Secret Annex became the unlikely setting for Anne's transformation from child to young woman. At thirteen when she entered hiding, Anne experienced the turbulent years of adolescence in extraordinary circumstances that both constrained her development and accelerated her emotional and intellectual maturity. Her diary entries track this evolution, from her initial childish complaints to increasingly sophisticated reflections on identity, morality, and her place in the world. "I have an odd way of sometimes, as it were, being able to see myself through someone else's eyes," she wrote, demonstrating remarkable self-awareness for a teenager. Physical maturation was one aspect of growing up that Anne documented with unusual candor for her era. She wrote about her changing body, her first menstrual period, and her developing interest in sexuality. "I think what's happening to me is so wonderful," she confided to her diary, "and not just the changes taking place on the outside of my body, but also those on the inside." These natural developments of adolescence took on added complexity in the confined space of the Annex, where privacy was virtually nonexistent. Anne's frank discussions of physical development and sexuality—passages that her father initially omitted when publishing her diary—reveal her determination to understand and express all aspects of human experience, even those considered taboo. Intellectually, Anne flourished despite her isolation from formal education. She created a rigorous study schedule for herself, working on mathematics, history, languages, and literature. Her father acted as her teacher, and books became her window to the world beyond their hiding place. Anne's writing reveals her growing intellectual curiosity and her determination to continue learning despite her circumstances. She read voraciously, studying mythology, religion, history, and literature, and began developing her own philosophical framework for understanding human nature and society. "I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to people around me who yet don't really know me," she wrote, showing her desire to contribute meaningfully to society. The psychological aspects of maturing in confinement were perhaps the most challenging. Anne struggled with the normal adolescent desire for independence while being utterly dependent on others for survival. She yearned for privacy but lived in a space where every movement was observed. Her diary became the one place she could truly be herself, expressing thoughts and feelings she couldn't share with those around her. "I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be if... if only there were no other people in the world," she wrote, capturing the universal adolescent struggle for identity in the most unnatural of circumstances. Anne's relationship with her mother became particularly strained during this period of development. While this mother-daughter conflict had roots in their different personalities, it was exacerbated by the confined living conditions and Anne's natural adolescent need to establish her own identity. "They don't understand that I can't be exactly like Mother," she wrote. "I'm not the kind of person to take Mother as an example, and I've long since stopped trying." As time passed, Anne gained more perspective on this difficult relationship, acknowledging her own role in their conflicts and expressing guilt about her harsh judgments, though a true reconciliation never fully materialized before their capture. By early 1944, Anne's diary entries show a remarkable emotional maturity. She began to analyze her own behavior more critically and to understand the perspectives of others. She wrote about recognizing her mother's sacrifices and attempting to be more patient with the adults whose habits annoyed her. Her famous statement, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart," written after nearly two years in hiding and with full knowledge of the atrocities being committed against Jews, demonstrates an astonishing capacity for hope and compassion that transcended her circumstances. This philosophical depth, emerging from a teenager in the most constrained physical circumstances, reveals how Anne's inner life expanded even as her external world shrank to the confines of a few small rooms.

Chapter 5: The Diary as Refuge and Legacy

Anne's diary began as a simple birthday gift—a red-checkered notebook that would become her most intimate confidant. She named this diary "Kitty" and addressed her entries as letters to this imaginary friend. "I hope I will be able to confide everything to you," Anne wrote in her first entry on June 12, 1942, "as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support." This relationship with her diary would indeed provide crucial emotional sustenance throughout her time in hiding, transforming from a private journal into a deliberate literary project that helped her make sense of her circumstances and develop her identity as a writer. Writing provided Anne with a psychological escape from the cramped quarters of the Annex. Through her imagination, she could transcend the physical limitations of her hiding place and explore the wider world. The act of writing allowed her to process the complex emotions of adolescence, the tensions of their precarious situation, and her evolving understanding of herself. "When I write, I can shake off all my cares," she confided to Kitty. "My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!" This therapeutic aspect of writing helped Anne maintain her mental equilibrium in circumstances that might otherwise have been overwhelming. Beyond the diary, Anne found joy in creating stories that transported her beyond the walls of their hiding place. She wrote a collection of tales called "Stories and Events from the Secret Annex," crafted character sketches of everyone in hiding, and even began a novel called "Cady's Life." These creative endeavors allowed her to exercise control in a situation where she had very little, to create worlds where she could move freely when her physical movement was severely restricted. Her father later recalled finding these additional writings after the war, evidence of Anne's serious literary ambitions and her determination to develop her craft despite the limitations of her circumstances. In March 1944, Anne's relationship with writing took on new urgency when she heard a radio broadcast from the Dutch government-in-exile, announcing plans to collect diaries and documents from the war. Inspired by this, she began systematically revising her earlier entries, editing for clarity and literary quality, and creating a manuscript she titled "Het Achterhuis" (The Secret Annex). This project gave her a concrete goal and the hope that her words might someday reach a wider audience. "I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met," she wrote. "I want to go on living even after my death!" Through writing, Anne developed a philosophical framework that helped her cope with the fear and uncertainty of her situation. She grappled with fundamental questions about human nature, suffering, and resilience. Her famous declaration—"I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart"—was not naive optimism but a hard-won conviction forged through her attempts to make meaning of her experiences. Writing allowed her to process the contradictions of her circumstances: the terror of persecution alongside the beauty of nature glimpsed through an attic window; the pettiness of daily conflicts alongside profound moments of connection. Perhaps most significantly, writing enabled Anne to construct an identity beyond that of victim. Through her diary, she could define herself not merely as a Jewish girl in hiding but as an aspiring writer with valuable insights to share. "I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion," she wrote. "I want to become a journalist, and later on a famous writer." This sense of purpose and identity was a profound act of resistance against the Nazi regime that sought to dehumanize her. By asserting her unique voice and vision, Anne reclaimed her humanity in the face of systematic persecution. Anne's last diary entry was written on August 1, 1944, just three days before the Annex was raided. Though she did not live to fulfill her literary ambitions as she had envisioned them, her diary achieved a power and reach beyond what even she might have imagined. Her father, Otto Frank, the sole survivor of the eight people in hiding, ensured that her voice would indeed "go on living" by publishing her diary after the war. What began as a private refuge became a lasting legacy that has touched millions of readers worldwide, fulfilling Anne's deepest wish to make a meaningful contribution to the world through her writing.

Chapter 6: Relationships Under Pressure

The forced intimacy of the Secret Annex created a pressure cooker for human relationships. Eight people from three different families, spanning three generations, lived in approximately 450 square feet of space with no privacy and no escape from one another. Anne Frank documented these complex interpersonal dynamics with remarkable insight, capturing both the tensions that threatened to tear their community apart and the bonds that ultimately held it together. "After living with these people for so long, I know them the way you know the back of your hand," she wrote, demonstrating her keen observational skills. Anne's relationship with her parents underwent significant transformation during their time in hiding. Her connection with her father, Otto, remained strong throughout—she called him "Pim" and often described him as the person who understood her best. "Father's fondness for me is something I think I've never had before," she wrote, treasuring this bond. However, her relationship with her mother, Edith, was considerably more strained. Anne frequently criticized her mother in her diary, finding her cold and critical. As time passed, Anne gained more perspective on this difficult relationship, acknowledging her own role in their conflicts and expressing guilt about her harsh judgments, though a true reconciliation never fully materialized before their capture. Anne's relationship with her sister Margot evolved from distant politeness to deeper understanding. Initially, Anne portrayed Margot as the perfect daughter who excelled academically and never caused trouble. But as they shared the cramped quarters of the Annex, Anne discovered new dimensions to her sister. "Margot's much nicer than I thought," she wrote after they began exchanging letters within the Annex to communicate more openly. When Anne developed feelings for Peter van Pels, Margot's gracious acceptance despite her own interest in him revealed a generosity of spirit that deeply moved Anne. By the final months in hiding, the sisters had developed a genuine friendship that transcended their earlier rivalry. The relationship between Anne and Peter van Pels provided one of the few opportunities for normal teenage development within their abnormal circumstances. Their friendship blossomed into a tentative romance that gave Anne an emotional outlet during the final months in hiding. They shared confidences in the attic, discussed books and ideas, and exchanged shy kisses. Anne analyzed this relationship with characteristic self-awareness, questioning whether her feelings were genuine love or simply a response to their confined situation. "Is it because I haven't been outdoors for so long that I've become so smitten with everything to do with nature?" she wondered. Nevertheless, these moments of connection with Peter provided Anne with crucial emotional support and a taste of the adolescent experiences she might have had in normal circumstances. The adult relationships in the Annex were equally complex. Anne chronicled the tensions between the van Pels couple, whose frequent arguments about politics, food, and money reverberated through the small space. Her portrayal of Fritz Pfeffer (whom she called "Dussel" in her diary) was often critical, focusing on his fussy habits and their conflicts over the desk they shared in their small room. Yet she also recorded moments of community and connection—shared meals, birthday celebrations, and intellectual discussions that provided a semblance of normal social life amid their extraordinary circumstances. Perhaps most poignant were the relationships between the hidden families and their helpers—Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, and Bep Voskuijl—who risked their lives daily to bring food, supplies, books, and news to the Annex. Anne wrote of them with immense gratitude and admiration, recognizing the courage required for their actions. These connections to the outside world provided not just physical sustenance but essential psychological support, reminding the hidden families that they had not been forgotten by the world beyond their walls. After the war, it was Miep Gies who preserved Anne's diary after the raid, keeping it safe until she could return it to Otto Frank, the sole survivor of the eight people in hiding.

Chapter 7: A Voice That Survived Death

Anne Frank did not survive to see the liberation of Europe or the publication of her diary. After the raid on the Secret Annex on August 4, 1944, she and the other residents were transported to Westerbork transit camp and then to Auschwitz. Later, Anne and her sister Margot were transferred to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in February or March 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated by British troops. Of the eight people who had hidden in the Secret Annex, only Otto Frank survived the war, returning to Amsterdam to discover that his daughters and wife had perished. Upon his return, Otto was given Anne's diary, which had been preserved by Miep Gies after the raid. Reading it revealed to him a daughter he had never fully known. "I had no idea of the depths of her thoughts and feelings," he later said. Recognizing the significance of Anne's words, Otto worked to fulfill her wish to be published. After initially facing rejection from publishers who doubted the market for Holocaust memoirs, Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) was published in Dutch in 1947. Translated into English as The Diary of a Young Girl in 1952, the book has since been translated into more than 70 languages and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making Anne's voice one of the most widely heard in literary history. The diary's literary merit has been recognized by critics and scholars who note Anne's remarkable ability to craft compelling narrative, create vivid character portraits, and express profound philosophical insights. Her writing shows an evolution from the observations of a precocious teenager to the more reflective voice of a young woman grappling with universal questions about human nature, suffering, and resilience. What makes her work particularly powerful is the juxtaposition of ordinary adolescent concerns—conflicts with parents, romantic feelings, dreams for the future—with the extraordinary circumstances of persecution and hiding. Beyond its literary significance, Anne's diary has become one of the most important historical documents of the Holocaust. By giving one human face and voice to the six million Jewish victims, Anne's story has helped generations of readers comprehend the incomprehensible scale of the tragedy. Her writing humanizes history, making the abstract statistics of genocide concrete and personal. As Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel observed, "Anne Frank's legacy is still very much alive and she has perhaps reached more hearts than anyone in history." The Anne Frank House, established in the building that contained the Secret Annex, opened as a museum in 1960 and now receives over a million visitors annually. Educational programs based on Anne's diary are used in schools worldwide to teach about tolerance, human rights, and the dangers of prejudice. The Anne Frank Trust in the UK, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect in the US, and similar organizations around the world use her story as a starting point for addressing contemporary issues of discrimination and persecution. Perhaps the most profound aspect of Anne's legacy is how her voice continues to speak to new generations facing different but related challenges. Her unwavering belief in human goodness despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary offers a model of moral courage. Her insistence on maintaining her identity and dreams in the face of persecution demonstrates the power of individual resistance. Her ability to find meaning and beauty even in the darkest circumstances provides inspiration for anyone facing adversity. Through her diary, the voice of a young girl who was silenced too soon continues to speak with clarity and power, challenging readers to build the more just and compassionate world she envisioned but did not live to see.

Summary

Anne Frank's enduring legacy lies in her extraordinary ability to transform confinement into creation, persecution into perspective, and personal suffering into universal insight. Through her diary, this ordinary teenage girl facing extraordinary circumstances crafted not merely a historical document but a literary work of profound humanity that continues to illuminate the darkest chapter of the 20th century. Her voice—honest, perceptive, and ultimately hopeful—reminds us that even in the most dehumanizing conditions, our essential humanity cannot be extinguished if we maintain our capacity to observe, reflect, and create meaning from our experiences. From Anne's journey, we learn the power of maintaining one's inner life when external freedom is lost, the importance of finding beauty amid ugliness, and the transformative potential of putting words to experience. Her famous declaration that "in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart" challenges us to hold onto our moral compass even when confronted with evidence of human cruelty. For educators, historians, human rights advocates, and anyone seeking to understand how individual voices can transcend historical circumstances, Anne Frank offers not just a window into the past but a mirror in which we can examine our own capacity for empathy, resilience, and hope in the face of contemporary challenges.

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Anne Frank

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information. Annelies Marie Frank was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary documenting her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands. A celebrated diarist, Frank described everyday life from her family's hiding place in an Amsterdam attic. She gained fame posthumously and became one of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis in Dutch, lit. 'the back house'; English: The Secret Annex), which documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. In 1934, when she was four-and-a-half, Frank and her family moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party gained control over Germany. By May 1940, the family was trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands. Frank lost her German citizenship in 1941 and became stateless. Despite spending most of her life in the Netherlands and being a de facto Dutch national, she never officially became a Dutch citizen. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in concealed rooms behind a bookcase in the building where Frank's father, Otto Frank, worked. The hiding place is notably referred to as the "secret annex". Until the family's arrest by the Gestapo on 4 August 1944, Frank kept and regularly wrote in a diary she had received as a birthday present in 1942.Following their arrest, the Franks were transported to concentration camps. On 1 November 1944, Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died (presumably of typhus) a few months later. They were estimated by the Red Cross to have died in March, with Dutch authorities setting 31 March as the official date. Later research has alternatively suggested that they may have died in February or early March.Otto, the only Holocaust survivor in the Frank family, returned to Amsterdam after World War II to find that Anne's diary had been saved by his secretaries, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. Moved by his daughter's repeated wishes to be an author, Otto Frank published her diary in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch version and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl, and has since been translated into over 70 languages.

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